Buying an MTB: What Mountain Bike Brands are the Best?

Buying a mountain bike that suits your needs isn’t a challenging job as long as you do your research. With several brands in the market, it can be confusing to pick out the best.

But who decides what the best is?

Well, the best mountain bike is one that fits you physically and aligns with your budget, needs, size, maintenance style, etc.

If you aren’t loyal to a particular brand already, there are a few factors through which you can decide which brand to choose. Sometimes it may matter where a brand is from or how many years it has been successfully serving its customers.

Also read, Buying a mountain bike? What to Look For In a Mountain Bike?

This article highlights everything you need to know about the best mountain bike brands in the market to make it easier for you to decide!

Best Mountain Bike Brands

Here are the Top Mountain Bike Brands of 2021 for you to choose from:

These brands exclusively put together their time and resources to create the best mountain bikes for you! Other than the mainstream brands, we wanted to highlight brands that only manufacture mountain bikes as their specialty:

1. Yeti Cycles

• Website: www.yeticycles.com
• Founding Year: 1985
• HQ Operations: Colorado
• Product Range: XC, TRAIL, ENDURO, and DH

According to their company’s philosophy, Yeti Cycles only build bikes that they would want to ride. Currently represented with several sponsored riders and athletes, Yeti Cycles is one of the top mountain bike brands in the market.

After falling in love with flourishing sports, the founders of Yeti Cycles wanted to create mountain bikes that pro riders would love and everyone who wants to give mountain biking a chance.

They have a wide variety of mountain bikes to choose from, which is another reason why this particular brand has respect and recognition in the mountain bike industry.

Read Best Mountain Bikes You Can Buy for Less Than $2,000

2. Ibis Cycles

• Website: www.ibiscycles.com
• Founding Year: 1981
• HQ Operations: California
• Product Range: TRAIL, ENDURO, and GRAVEL

Ibis Cycles is one of the most innovative mountain bike manufacturers in California. The brand carries a wide variety of mountain bikes, including enduro, trail, and recently added gravel bikes.

Even though the company took a break between 2000 and 2005, Ibis Cycles is now back better than ever. Their products are often highlighted in sponsorship deals and are also thriving in their own Enduro race team.

Read Can You Ride a Mountain Bike While Being Pregnant?

3. Santa Cruz Bicycles

• Website: www.santacruzbicycles.com
• Founding Year: 1993
• HQ Operations: California
• Product Range: XC, TRAIL, ENDURO, E-MTB, DH, GRAVEL, and DIRT JUMP

Santa Cruz Bicycles is a brand that offers modern mountain biking technology ever since their first bike launch called the Tazmon. Since the early technological development, Santa Cruz Bicycles has offered several mountain bikes in different disciplines.

Their spin-off women’s mountain bike line is also thriving under the brand name, Juliana. Their high-end performance mountain bikes are a favorite among professional riders and have had amazing success in several racing teams.

Currently, famous riders such as Greg Minnaar and Luca Shaw are part of the Santa Cruz Bicycle family.

Read How to Make A Mountain Bike Faster

4. Evil Bikes

• Website: www.evil-bikes.com
• Founding Year: 2009
• HQ Operations: Washington
• Product Range: TRAIL, ENDURO, GRAVEL, and DIRT

Evil bikes is a high-end mountain bike manufacturer with an interesting history. Even though they weren’t doing so well in the last decade, this Washington-based brand is now a well-respected brand that produces high-performance mountain bikes for riders across the world.

In 2021, Evil Bikes holds a wide range of mountain bikes, including enduro, dirt jump, gravel, and trail. Their current sponsored team of riders is named Black Collars, who share love and passion for vigorous mountain bike riding.

Evil Bikes high-performance mountain bikes are the perfect companion for anyone who loves or off-roading and mountain bike riding.

Read What to Look For in a Road Bike?

5. Transition Bikes

• Website: www.transitionbikes.com
• Founding Year: 2001
• HQ Operations: Washington
• Product Range: TRAIL, ENDURO, YOUTH, DH, and DIRT

Transition Bikes is a rider-owned and operated mountain bike brand. They develop the latest mountain bike technology and have been doing so since 2001.

The Giddy Up suspension system is one of their best-known technologies, which allows the mountain bike’s suspension to be adjusted according to the need of the rider. This helps riders decrease transfer losses as well as smooth out bumps while riding.

Transition Bikes as a brand has been respected in the mountain bike community – thanks to the positive messages and reviews by athletes and riders across the world.

Their wide range of high-quality mountain bikes come with lifetime warranties making their frames the most durable ones in the market.

Since their inception, they have expanded to several other disciplines, including dirt jump, downhill, and enduro, as well as kids’ mountain bikes so you can keep everyone in your family happy and active.

Read How to Convert a Mountain Bike to a Road Bike

6. Pivot Cycles

• Website: www.pivotcycles.com
• Founding Year: 2007
• HQ Operations: Arizona
• Product Range: XC, TRAIL, ENDURO, E-MTB, FAT, GRAVEL, and DIRT

Pivot Cycles was previously owned by Titus Cycles in 2007. After Titus Cycles was brought out, the owner started designing high-performance mountain bikes, and thus, the brand pivot cycles was born.

Their high-quality bikes revolve around the DW-link suspension systems, making this company one of the top runners among mountain bike brands.

Since its inception in 2007, Pivot Cycles has built on its reputation to become one of the best reviewed bike manufacturers, especially when it comes to technology development and product line-up variety.

Today in 2021, Pivot Cycles creates a wide variety of mountain bikes, such as enduro, XC, trail, downhill, and more. You can also find amazing carbon fiber bikes in their collection, which can last your lifetime.

Read Best Mountain Bikes Under $500

7. Revel Bikes

• Website: www.revelbikes.com
• Founding Year: 2019
• HQ Operations: Colorado
• Product Range: TRAIL, ALL MOUNTAIN, and ENDURO

Founded just two years ago, Revel Bikes is already in the top running with its innovative and high-performance technology ideas for mountain bike designs. With their superior linkage designs, their mountain bikes are one of the best in the market.

Currently offering three disciplines: Ranger, Rail, and Rascal; riders can choose these bikes in accordance with the unique characteristics they are built around. All mountain bikes carry CBF suspension, which offers superior performance.

Even though the prices are pretty high, Revel Bikes offers a lifetime warranty on their mountain bike frames. If you are not looking to spend too much on a mountain bike, Revel Bikes also offers different mountain bike build options to suit a variety of budgets.

Read How to Clean A Mountain Bike Chain

8. Rocky Mountain Bicycles

• Website: www.bikes.com
• Founding Year: 1981
• HQ Operations: Vancouver
• Product Range: XC, TRAIL, ENDURO, FAT, ADVENTURE, E-MTB, DH, and YOUTH

Rocky Mountain Bicycles produce high-quality mountain bikes that are ready for any mountain bike race. From competing at the Olympics and winning World Cups in mountain biking, Rocky Mountain Bicycles are the ultimate contenders.

This company is currently sponsoring several athletic and professional riders by promoting various ambassadors across several countries.

The current collection of mountain bikes at Rocky Mountain Bicycles include Enduro, Trail, XC, Downhill, and even a children’s bike range to keep everyone happy.

Their price point sits next to other high-end mountain bike brands; however, the quality and performance of the mountain bikes are definitely in accordance with what you pay for.

Read Mountain Bike vs Fat Bike – Detail Guide

9. Intense Cycles USA

• Website: www.intensecycles.com
• Founding Year: 1993
• HQ Operations: California
• Product Range: XC, E-MTB, ENDURO, and DH

Intense cycles is a superior performance mountain bike brand that uses a skilled factory team and professional racers to develop and build new mountain bike ideas.

Currently in 2021, their top professional mountain bike rider Aaron Gwin is a five-time World Cup champion who helps them develop and design their current mountain bike collections.

With a range of mountain bikes to choose from, Intense Cycles offers different budgets and disciplines which also include professional and non-professional mountain bikes.

From XC, E-MTB, Enduro and so much more, all of their bikes are built to professional standards and are given a lot of respect in the mountain bike industry.

Intense Cycles can be a great brand to choose if you are looking for a new mountain bike especially because it is one of the favorite choices of many professional and skilled mountain bike riders across the globe.

Read Why are Mountain Bikes So Expensive?

10. Juliana

• Website: www.julianabicycles.com
• Founding Year: 1999
• HQ Operations: California
• Product Range: TRAIL, ENDURO, and GRAVEL

Juliana Bicycles is an offset brand by Santa Cruz Bicycles that offers high-end mountain bike ranges. Juliana Bicycles in specific offers mountain bikes specially designed for women.

Considering the mountain bike industry, Juliana Bicycles is one of the first brands to offer these products for women mountain bike riders.

With the same technology and suspension design as Santa Cruz Bicycles, Juliana Bicycles tailors all the tried and tested designs according to female-specific needs.

Other than this, they also have their own pro team, which includes six professional riders from Canada and United States who compete in the Enduro World Series. Not only are the bikes of incredibly high performance, but also great for professional racing as well.

Read Can Mountain Bikes Get Wet?

11. Niner Bikes

• Website: www.ninerbikes.com
• Founding Year: 2005
• HQ Operations: Colorado
• Product Range: XC, E-MTB, ENDURO, TRAIL, and GRAVEL

Niner Bikes is a fun brand that produces both local and high-end mountain bikes. With a commitment to fun and dirt, they engage with the local mountain biking community, which becomes the muse for their newer designs and technologies.

The brand is known to test its new mountain bikes on the trails before promoting them in the market. Their current range holds several high-performance mountain bikes, which include gravel, XC, trail, Enduro, as well as E-MTB, and more.

12. Orange Mountain Bikes

• Website: www.orangebikes.co.uk
• Founding Year: 1988
• HQ Operations: United Kingdom
• Product Range: DH, GRAVITY, E-MTB, ENDURO, TRAIL, HARDTAILS, GRAVEL, and KIDS

Orange Bikes is a British mountain bike brand located in the northern part of England. With their first bike design, the Clockwork Orange, named after a film, the mountain bike brand has since received much positivity and status from its fans.

Their bikes are strong and promise longevity as they are fully manufactured and assembled in Britain. Currently, Orange Bikes offers Enduro, Downhill, Hardtails, Gravel, and Trail bikes which you can easily consider as an investment.

They are extremely and long-lasting bikes that undeniably offer superior performance.

Read Mountain Bike vs. Road Bike vs. Hybrid Bike

13. Forbidden Bike CO

• Website: www.forbiddenbike.com
• Founding Year: 2019
• HQ Operations: British Columbia
• Product Range: ENDURO and TRAIL

The company Forbidden Bike began with a single mountain bike with superior technology and cutting-edge design. Since then, Forbidden Bike has been on the radar.

With mullet wheel geometry, and high-performance bike designs, their very own suspension link technology is what sets them apart from the rest.

Since forbidden bike is a new bike manufacturer, it currently only offers two bikes. Rest assured both of them offer a great experience and are capable of getting you through several terrain types and conditions.

14. Eminent Cycles

• Website: www.eminentcycles.com
• Founding Year: 2014
• HQ Operations: California
• Product Range: TRAIL, ALL MOUNTAIN, and ENDURO

Eminent Cycles is a mountain bike brand based in San Diego, California. All their bike designs use an Active Float System which provides riders with control and reliable traction in every situation.

Even though this brand only carries three bikes at the moment, their superior designs and quality are something to look into.

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• How To Clean a Mountain Bike
• Mountain Bike Or Road Bike: Which Is Better For Weight Loss?
• Mountain Bikes vs. Hybrid Bikes
• How To Change A Mountain Bike Tire?

The Bottom Line

With more than 12 mountain bike brands to choose from, you can narrow down your choices based on your budget and MTB type you prefer. Mountain bikes are definitely an investment, and with these superior brands specializing in mountain bike designs and performance, you get what you pay for!